One Step Closer

Today we are one step closer to our baby boy awaiting us in Changchun, China. I got the call at 5:21 PM our time that our (nothing less than fabulous) agency has officially sent off all of our paperwork. We are now, in adoption-ease speak, Dossier to China, or DTC. It is one small step in an excruciating marathon of steps, but a step nonetheless. (Actually, I feel like this whole process is more of a spritathon. We APs -- adoptive parents -- rush, rush, rush, and then sit and wait. My dad would liken it to the the military. Hurry up and wait!) Our contact at Holt said that we will have a log in date (LID) sometime next week so we can submit our LOI (Letter of Intent). As you can see, the adoption world has a language, riddled with acronyms, rivaled only by the military and government. Anyway, being DTC is our big news so far.

Now we get to fret and anxiously await China to hopefully approve us. I, being nothing if not neurotic and obsessive, have crunched numbers time and again to see when we might be traveling to get our dear son. Other adoptive parents would of course understand this fanatical guesstimating and attempted trend predicting. With a biological pregnancy, parents have a fairly concrete idea of when, ballpark, they are expecting. In our case, we are at the mercy of...GOVERNMENTS....heaven forbid! But I digress. If timelines remain consistent, and we hit no snags (fingers crossed, prayers offered up) we should expect to travel around July. Guangzhou will be a treat at that time. Sigh. Probably averaging 90 degrees and 90% humidity. Let me be clear, though. I will gladly travel to that sauna as opposed to having to wait until fall for some unforeseen reason. Any possible travel time, of course, is all dependent upon events entirely out of my control, though, as previously stated. Yay. Anybody who knows me knows how well I deal with that. I just have to remind myself that His timing is perfect. As difficult as it is to let go and trust, I have to take a deep breath and do just that. While we wait, we really appreciate prayers from those who do so. We pray that our little peanut (still Tank for those who are wondering) is being loved and cared for, that he is healthy and happy, that God wraps his loving arms around him and protects him. Ah, yes, and that his mom has peace and understanding that it will all happen in due time. And today, we took one more step on this journey. Thanks, everybody, for your love and support!

Oh yeah. A side note? Holt also told us today that our family picture is going to be the new picture for the China adoption guidebook in a couple of weeks. How fun is that?! :)